KR19990044843A - Apparatus and method for providing a user interface for hot spots in a hypertext document page in a network display station - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a data processor controlled user interactive display system for displaying a hypertext document, each hypertext document being a communications network such as a world wide web (WWW). It includes a sequence of display screen pages (display screen page) received via. Each page includes a plurality of hotspots of various sizes, each hotspot displaying a linked document in response to user interactive pointing means. The system of the present invention has means for determining the size and position of the hot spot on the display page, and means for dynamically creating a plurality of extended hot spot zones in response to the size and position determining means, Each hot spot zone includes one hot spot. The system of the present invention also includes means for displaying a document linked to the hot spot of the zone in response to the user interactive picture position indicating means within the selected hot spot zone. When the user indicates the image position, these hot spot zones are highlighted to provide the user with a high-definition large target zone where the user can access the hot spot of his choice.

Description

Apparatus and method for providing a user interface for hotspots in a hypertext document page on a network display station

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a computer managed communication network, and more particularly, to a method of receiving a hypertext document that interactively links a user from the received hypertext document to other documents, media, and programs. To facilitate the use of an interactive computer controlled display interface for hotspots.

The 1990s have been marked by a social technological revolution driven by the data processing industry along with the consumer-centric electronics industry. As with all these revolutions, the technological revolution has elicited significant wave effects by the waves of these technologies. This effect has been a driving force in the development of the technology sector, which is already known and available but has been relatively inactive for many years. One important technology of these technologies is the document, media, and program distribution technologies associated with the Internet. Intensive developments in electronic entertainment and consumer-centric industries with data processing capabilities have exponentially increased demand for wide-area communications distribution channels and have existed privately as scattered facilities that distribute academic and government data for more than one generation. The world wide web (WWW) and the Internet, which have been around, reached the "critical mass" and then began a period of massive expansion. This expansion gives industry and consumers direct access to all kinds of documents, media, and computer programs.

As a result of these changes, in the industrialized world, it seems as though in reality all human tasks require human-computer interfaces. Thus, it is necessary to make computer-oriented activities available to those who make up a significant part of the world's population who were either comrades or at least indifferent to computers a year or two ago. In order for the vast market supported by computers to continue to flourish commercially, it is necessary to attract a plurality of indifferent consumers to the computer interface. It is therefore a task of the present technology to devise a computer interface which is immediately visible and allows any inaccuracies on the user's side. In particular, this is an increasingly demanding task in relation to the WWW or the Internet. The user should be able to easily display the document in natural language in a clear and comprehensive manner. For many years, the hypertext markup language (HTML), the document language of the Internet WWW, provided the answer. It provides direct links between pages and other documents on the web and various related data sources. These data sources were initially text, but later developed into media, or "hypermedia."

As the functionality of web pages and similar documents is rapidly expanding, it will be readily understood that the demand for web documents has grown exponentially in recent years. In addition to standard HTML for text and media associated with WWW pages, whose use is rapidly increasing for commercial, educational, and recreational purposes, Java document programs that output standard HTML files to computer-controlled displays provide a standard natural language display of program documentation. There is a JavaDoc. HTML has thus become the best display language used on the Internet or on the World Wide Web. In addition to the program document functions described above, HTML has generally been used in all forms of display documents, including the representation of hypertext and hypermedia documents stored in separate documents on the Internet or web servers. HTML is an application of the standard generalized markup language (SGML), the ISO standard for organizing the structure and content of all digital documents. It should be appreciated that all features of the invention described in connection with HTML may be applied equivalently to features of SGML. For a detailed description of JavaDoc or HTML see "Just Jaba" (2nd Edition, Peter van der Linden, Sun Microsystems, Inc., 1997) or "Java in a Nutshell" (2nd Edition, David Flanagan, O'Reilly Publisher, 1997) Is shown in.

We know that the human factor / ease of use of the WWW interface functionality has not advanced as rapidly as many other web functions expand rapidly. Vendors of web functionality have put a lot of effort into standardizing the interface used in web browsers, for example, the web browser interface (WBI). However, the user interface for hotspots, that is, links to hypertext and hypermedia embedded in text and graphic material on web pages, was not in high demand for web pages and related documents, and user groups mostly used computers. It did not change much compared with the time when they were made up of elite elites. Such hot spots were accessed using conventional image position indicating means such as a mouse, wand or joystick. These image position indicators require a physical movement that combines two forms, such as an approximate movement to near the hot spot and a fine movement of the hot spot itself. This requires an extraordinary degree of physical agility, which is often prone to failure, especially if the user is not good at computer operation. Many years ago when a mouse / icon graphical interface for computer displays was developed, interface designers recognized this problem and attempted to design a graphical interface that provides enough space around icons in view of these movements and manipulations.

However, in the case of web pages, there is not a relatively small group of professional designers trying to solve human factors. Rather, in the age of the web, everyone can design web pages. Thus, although the web site's hot spots may be icons, they are more likely to be text, embedded in adjacent text, and simply highlighted as hot spots using underlined or adjacent color and bold text. However, even if the hotspot is an icon or some other graphic, these pages are often laid out by developers without graphics skills. Also, web pages are often modulated to include new hotspots, and adding hotspots rarely redesigns the entire page.

The present invention provides an easy-to-access display of a displayed hotspot zone that is very generously tolerable to both the limitations of the user's manipulation techniques dealing with image position indicators, as well as the limitations present in hotspot design of web pages. The layout provides a solution to the problem of improving the interface and access to hotspots of received web pages by dynamically reconfiguring hotspots on each page received at the user's display station.

The present invention relates, for example, to a computer controlled display system for displaying a document, such as a web page containing natural language text received at a display station, especially when transmitted from a location remote from the receiving station. The received document is composed of a sequence of screen pages, each document including a plurality of hot spots having various sizes, each hot spot displaying the linked document in response to the user interactive image position indicating means. . The present invention includes dynamically reconstructing each page in a received document to allow the user to select hotspots that are more familiar and easier to access.

The present invention implements this by determining the size and position of the hot spot on the display page, and then dynamically creating a plurality of extended hot spot zones, the extended hot spot zone being based on the determined size and position. Includes one of the spots. The invention further comprises means for displaying a document linked to the hot spot of the zone in response to the user interactive picture position indicating means within the selected hot spot zone. Thus, limited hotspots are dynamically extended to hotspot zones for easier access. Since this expanded zone has a sufficient size, it is easily accessible to users who use general cursor image position indicating means such as a mouse.

The present invention provides a hotspot arrangement that is convenient and easy to access, regardless of any hotspot design limitations that exist on the original document or its pages, since the zones of hotspots are dynamically repartitioned in the received document. It is desirable to repartition the zone as wide as the hotspot zone can divide the page so that there is always an active zone, that is, the zone of the hotspot closest to the cursor. Alternatively, the zone may be angled by the direction of cursor movement from the home or initial hot spot on each displayed page. In this case, the hot spot zone is the area formed by the angle extending from the initial hot spot as a vertex. In an embodiment using such a radial zone, the direction of movement of the cursor that the user moves for selection determines the hot spot zone. In the case of the present invention where the cursor is always located in the selected hot spot zone, it is preferred that the entire hot spot zone including the important part of the cursor or zone is highlighted. This feature is especially useful for web browsing when the user is in an environment such as a living room that is about 10 feet away from a set top box or similar terminal that is not typically one to two feet away from the computer terminal. It is effective in the type display.

In the case of radial zones, you must predetermine home or initial hotspot for each page for browsing. This is based on the fact that, for a web page, for example, it is likely to select a particular hotspot, such as a hotspot that links to a document, page or web site that is most frequently "connected" at a given time. In this case, the page designer does not need to select the initial hotspot in advance, and the system can determine the initial hotspot in a dynamic and heuristically manner by the system if some means of tracking the connection is available.

1 shows data according to the invention, including a network connection via a communication adapter, which can implement a central processing unit and a user interface workstation capable of converting received data into a web page. Block diagram of the processing system.

2 is a schematic diagram generalizing a portion of the Internet in which the present invention may be implemented;

3 is a schematic representation of a typical web page with hotspots highlighted.

4A is a schematic diagram of a web page with all text removed to indicate the original hot spot as well as individual hot spot zones in accordance with the present invention.

4B illustrates how the size and location of a hot spot is determined in accordance with the practice of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is the same schematic view as the web page of FIG. 4A except that it is arranged to show how the page is divided into radial zones in accordance with another feature of the invention;

6A is a flow chart of a program that may be used to dynamically generate a web page interface having a hot spot zone of the page shown in FIG. 4A.

FIG. 6B is a flow chart of a programming routine that may be used to generate the intersections of zone boundaries and boundary lines constructed by the program described in FIG. 6A.

Before describing the specific embodiments in detail, it will be helpful to fully understand the various general components and methods associated with the present invention. Since the main features of the present invention relate to documents such as web pages sent over a network, it will be helpful to understand the network and its principles of operation. However, in this specification, the network to which the present invention is applied will not be described in detail. Reference is also made to the applicability of the present invention to global networks such as the Internet. A description of Internet nodes, objects and links is provided in Mastering the Internet (GH Cady et al., Sybex Inc. Alameda, CA, 1996).

All data communication systems that interconnect or link computer control systems at various sites constitute a communication network. The network may be as simple as two computers linked, or may be a random combination of local area networks (LAN) or wide area networks (WAN). The Internet or the World Wide Web, of course, is a global network of heterogeneous mixtures of computer technology and operating systems. The higher the level of objects in the hierarchy, the lower level objects are linked through various network server computers. These network servers are very important for network distribution, such as the distribution of web pages and related documents. The HTML language is described in the above "Just Java" text, specifically in Chapter 7, pages 249-268, which deals with the processing of web pages with built-in hotspot activated linkage, and "Mastering the Internet" (Cady). And McGregor, Sybex Inc. San Francisco, 1996), specifically in pages 637-642, which describe the HTML that makes up the web page.

Referring to Figure 1, a general data processing system is shown that can be used with HTML to implement the present invention on a receiving interactive workstation. A central processing unit (CPU), such as IBM's PowerPc microprocessor (PowerPc is a trademark of IBM Corporation), is provided and interconnected with various other components by the system bus 12. Operating system 41 runs on CPU 10 and is used to provide control and adjust the functionality of the various components of FIG. Operating system 41 may be either a commercially available operating system such as Windows 95 (trademark of Microsoft Corporation) or one of IBM's OS / 2 (OS / 2 is a trademark of IBM Corporation) available. All conventional network browser systems associated with the HTML language with embedded hotspots or links form part of the application software 40, run in conjunction with the operating system 41, and the HTML application software 40 It outputs a call to the operating system 41 which performs various functions to be performed by. Applications of the present invention that extend hotspots to the indicated hotspot zones may also be included in the application software 40, as described in detail below. The browser program coupled with the operating system provides a basic receiving workstation, and the web page is received on the workstation after the program of the present invention is dynamically implemented. In this regard there is an Internet Explorer 4.0 browser that runs on Windows 95 and has an "Active Desktop" routine that can be adapted to implement the hot zone program of the present invention.

Read only memory (ROM) 16 is coupled to CPU 10 via bus 12 and includes a basic input / output system (BIOS) that controls basic computer functions. Random access memory (RAM) 14, I / O adapter 18 and communication adapter 34 are also interconnected to system bus 12. It should be noted that software components, including operating system 41 and browser, HTML, and dynamic hotspot zone extension application software 40, are loaded into RAM 14, the main memory of the computer system. I / O adapter 18 may be a disk storage device 20, i.e., a small computer system interface (SCSI) in communication with a hard drive. The communication adapter 34 interconnects the bus 12 with an external network, which allows the workstation to communicate with a web server to receive document pages on a LAN or WAN, of course the LAN or WAN Includes WWW. The I / O device is also connected to the system bus 12 via a user interface adapter 22 and a display adapter 36. The keyboard 24, track ball and mouse 26 are all interconnected with the bus 12 via the user interface adapter 22. The display adapter 36 includes a frame buffer 39, which is a storage device for holding each pixel displayed on the display screen 38. The image stored in the frame buffer 39 is displayed on the monitor 38 after passing through various components such as a digital-to-analog converter (not shown). By using the above-described I / O device, the user can select the hot spot by inputting data and other information into the system through the tracking ball 32 or the mouse 26 and outputted from the system via the display 38. Information can be received.

Before further describing the basic embodiment, some additional background to the web page should be considered. Web users do not need to know the address of the page or document they want to access as long as they know the document they are linking to. Because of the ease and usefulness of using a web browser, it can provide tens of millions of users with access to a large number of different pages and topics that can be imagined at low cost. The web link is stored on the page itself, and in the present invention, when the user wants to skip the linked page, the user moves to the hot spot or hot spot zone or clicks the hot spot or hot spot zone. The growth of the web and its growing importance is due to the ability to build the above-mentioned linked information resources, which can be accessed without the aid of menu sequences. Unlike other database access systems, anyone on the web can combine additional information. The basic unit of transmission available on the Web is a hypertext page composed of HTML. For further explanation of the foregoing, reference may be made to the Mastering the Internet text.

Referring to FIG. 2, a computer 56 control display terminal 57 displaying a web page or other document of the present invention is connected to a portion of the Internet. Computer 56 and display terminal 57 are the computer systems shown in FIG. 1, and connection 58 (FIG. 2) is the network connection shown in FIG.

For general techniques for connecting a local display workstation to the Internet via a network server, which may be used to implement a system in which the present invention is used, see Mastering the Internet (Cady et al.) Text, specifically pages 136-147. Can be. The system embodiment of FIG. 2 is one of the techniques known as host-dial connection. This host dial connection via network access server 53, which is linked 51 with network 50, has been in use for 30 years. The server 53 is managed by a service provider that supplies the display terminal 57 of the client. The host server 53 is accessed by the client terminal 57 via the modem 54, the telephone line 55, and the modem 52 by dial-up telephone linkage 58. An HTML file representing a web page that can be accessed from the Internet 50 via a link 51 is downloaded from the server 53 to the display terminal 57 via the control computer 56 via a telephone line link. As described below, hotspots on web pages received on computer 56 are dynamically reconfigured into the hotspot zone of the present invention, displayed and accessed on display terminal 57.

The present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4A. 3 shows a typical web page 60 that may be received via the WWW. Web page 60 includes hotspots such as phrase 67, phrase 68, and phrase 69. On the current page, these phrases are received and highlighted for display as a hot spot. Each phrase is displayed in a square box to indicate the range of hot spots, allowing the user to skillfully navigate using image position indicators or cursors to appropriately select the hot spots. More problems can arise when hotspots are adjacent to each other, such as hotspot 70 and hotspot 71.

4A provides a way for a web page to solve this problem by providing coarse interface user access to hotspots in accordance with the present invention. The configuration shown in FIG. 4A is dynamically generated at a receiving station such as, for example, the station including the computer 56 and the display 57 of FIG. 2. To make the interface clearer, all text and graphics are removed from the web page 72 of FIG. 4A to show only hotspots labeled HOT1 to HOT6, each of which is represented by a square box. The system of the present invention has HOT1 as zone 61, HOT2 as zone 62, HOT3 as zone 63, HOT4 as zone 64, HOT5 as zone 65, HOT6 as zone 66 ) To dynamically expand the effective area of individual hotspots into hot zones. These zones generally do not appear on the display screen, i.e. text with hidden hotspots is considered normal, but when the cursor enters any part of the selected zone, the hotspot or sometimes the entire zone is highlighted to indicate the selected part. It should be noted that

Zones can be built dynamically by any program routine that implements the following algorithm: Hot spots are defined in Cartesian coordinate systems. 4b shows a method of constructing a standard hot spot 73 which can be defined by a Cartesian coordinate system having four straight lines defining the sides of the hot spot, where the four straight lines are x = n1, x '= n2, y = m1, y '= m2, also used to define the hot spot location on the page. In fact, the data should be part of the HTML that is received to define the page and easily determined from the data. Then, for each side of each hot spot, one hot spot and the closest hot spot are determined and the distance between them is reduced by half. Thus, a straight line 74 in which the distance DX1 from HOT1 and HOT2 is equidistant in the x orthogonal direction is generated to define the corresponding zones 61 and 62. In the y direction from HOT1, a straight line 75 is formed in which the distance DX2 from HOT1 and HOT3 is equidistant to define the corresponding zones 61 and 63. In addition, a straight line 77 in which the distance DY1 from HOT2 and HOT4 is equidistant in the y direction is defined to define the corresponding zones 62 and 64, and a straight line 78 in which the distance DY3 from HOT4 and HOT5 is equidistant is generated and Zones 64 and 65 are defined. In addition, in the x direction, a straight line 76 having an equidistant distance DX2 from HOT3 and HOT4 is generated to define the corresponding zones 63 and 64. Since there are no other hot spots between each of HOT1 and HOT3 and the side edge 81, both the zone 61 and the zone 63 extend to the edge 81. Similarly, since there are no other hot spots between each of HOT2 and HOT4 and the side edges, both zone 62 and zone 64 extend to edge 80. Likewise, zone 61 and zone 62 both extend to top edge 79. In this manner, the hot spot zone 61 to the hot spot zone 66 can be dynamically generated at the receiving terminal. These zones are multiples of each of these hot spot areas, and are easily accessed through an approximate user image position indication operation. Typically, when the user moves the cursor, for example, to zone 64, the entire zone is highlighted to display the hot spot, so that HOT4 can be selected, and the user can select it by clicking the mouse appropriately.

Those skilled in the art will readily understand how a zone is created on the display screen of FIG. 4A. An example of an algorithm for dynamically creating such a zone will be described with reference to FIG. 6A. When the document including the hot spot is received at the display terminal, the program of FIG. 6 is executed. First, in step 90, the next hot spot, which may be an initial hot spot, for example HOT1 (FIG. 4A), is accessed. Then, in step 91, the size of the hot spot is obtained. These sizes shown in FIG. 4B serve to determine the location and size of the hot spots. Then, in step 92, x = n closest to the left side of the hot spot is obtained. Note that x = n is an orthogonal line constituting the edge of the hot spot. Once the position and size are determined, it is determined in step 93 whether or not the left edge has been reached, i.e. there is no x = n between the hot spot and the left edge occurring in the case of HOT1. Then, in step 94, the left edge 81 of the screen window is stored as the boundary of the zone. On the other hand, if there are x = n straight lines that make up the edges of adjacent hot spots, the distance between the hot spot edges is reduced to half of DX in step 95 and stored as zone boundaries.

Then, in step 96, x = n closest to the right side of the hot spot is found. Again in step 97 it is determined whether the right edge has been reached, and if so, in step 98 it is stored as a zone boundary. In the example of FIG. 4A, using HOT1 as the initial hotspot, when x = n1 of another boundary, HOT2, is reached, DX1 is calculated as half of the distance between HOT1 and HOT2 in step 99, as described above. A boundary 74 is formed between 61 and 62. The system then proceeds to step 100 via branch A, where Y = M nearest the top of the hot spot is obtained. Note that y = m is an orthogonal line that forms a hot spot edge in the y direction. In step 101 it is determined whether the top of the screen window has been reached before reaching any y = m. In the case of HOT1 of FIG. 4A, if the top has been reached, the top edge is stored as the zone boundary at step 102. As described above for the x boundary, likewise, in step 103, one half of the distance between the edges of adjacent hot spots is calculated and stored as the boundary between corresponding zones of adjacent hot spots. Then, in step 104, y = m closest to the hot spot bottom is obtained. In step 105 it is determined whether the bottom of the screen window has been reached before reaching any y = m. If so, in step 106 the bottom edge of the screen is stored as the zone boundary. In the example of FIG. 4A using HOT1 as the initial hot spot, when another boundary y '= m2 of HOT3 is reached, in step 107 as described above, DY2 is calculated as half of the distance between HOT1 and HOT3, resulting in a zone ( 61 and 63 provide a boundary 75. In step 108, it is determined whether the final hot spot has been reached, and if so, the process is complete. If the final hot spot has not been reached, it returns to the initial stage 90 via branch point B, where each hot spot is processed in the manner described above.

The program is sufficient to define a boundary between zones and zones, such as straight line 76 in FIG. 4A, but for example straight line 76 and straight line 77 which is the Y boundary between zone 62 and zone 64. As with the intersection of, it should be taken into account that the intersection between the boundary lines extends in a direction perpendicular to each other. A simple routine for performing this method is shown in the flow chart of FIG. 6B. Step 110 begins at a defined boundary defined by x = n, that is to say straight line 76 in FIG. 4A. In step 111, the distance DX from the hot spot along the x-axis is found. In the case of the straight line 76, the distance DX2 is obtained. It is then determined at step 112 whether straight line 76 intersects the y = m zone boundary. If not, the zone boundary extends to the top or bottom edge in step 113. However, if there is an intersection as in the case of the straight line 76 intersecting the y boundary line 77, it is determined in step 114 whether DX > DY. Where DX is DX2 described above and DY is DY1 of FIG. 4A which is half of the distance between HOT2 and HOT4 along the y axis. Thus it can be extended to the point where DX2 begins to exceed DY1, and at step 115 the boundary 76 ends at the intersection 82. This process can be repeated for each hot spot to determine zone boundaries in orthogonal directions.

Referring to FIG. 5, an alternative system for dynamically providing a hot zone interface from a received display page with hot spots is described. This involves creating a radial hot zone that radiates from the initial or home hot spot in the direction of another hot spot on the page. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the same web page as the web page of FIG. 4A except that the hot zone is radially disposed. In providing this radial arrangement, the initial or home hotspot should be selected in FIG. 5. This may be initially selected by the user, or may be dynamically selected by the system. If the system selects a hotspot, it can make a selection based on the hotspot's activity. In other words, you can make a selection based on the number of connections to the hypertext associated with the hotspot at various web levels tracked by the web activity or system. Of course, you can also select the initial hotspot based on other characteristics that are not active. For example, the initial hot spot may be the hot spot that is most easily accessible radially from another hot spot.

As shown in Fig. 5, each hot spot zone 122 to 126 individually associated with one of the hot spots HOT2 to HOT6 is given an appropriately sized angle and direction, so that the user can move the cursor or other image position indicating device to the initial HOT6. Moves from the direction toward the selected hot spot to activate the zone associated with the hot spot, which is highlighted. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the cursor 120 moves in the direction from HOT6 to HOT4, resulting in the zone 124 being highlighted. The radial zone of FIG. 5 may be provided using any conventional geometric algorithm that provides radial straight lines starting from the center vertex and point arrangement. As in the arrangement shown, HOT1 is radially completely blocked by HOT3. As in the radial system of FIG. 5, when the process starts from an initial hotspot, some of the hotspots may be placed in a different hotspot between the blocked hotspot and the initial hotspot, especially in the case of a complex page with multiple hotspots. It can be expected that it can be blocked radially by. In such a case, it is possible to provide a system that can provide a second home hotspot that is radially accessible from the initial hotspot and that can access the initially blocked hotspot.

While the invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments, it will be understood that various changes and substitutions may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the following claims.

The present invention provides a hotspot arrangement that is convenient and easy to access, regardless of any hotspot design limitations that exist on the original document or its pages, since the zones of hotspots are dynamically repartitioned in the received document.

Claims (20)

A hypertext document comprising a sequence of at least one display screen page including a plurality of hotspots of various sizes, each of the hotspots displaying a linked document in response to a user interactive picture position indicating means. A data processor controlled user interactive display system for displaying, Means for determining the size and position of the hot spot on the display page; Means for dynamically generating a plurality of extended hotspot zones, wherein the hotspot zones each include the one hotspot in response to the size and positioning means; And Means for displaying a document linked to the hot spot of the zone in response to the user interactive image position indicating means in a selected hot spot zone; A data processor controlled user interactive display system comprising a. 2. A data processor controlled user interactive display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said image position indicating means comprises a user control cursor, said cursor further comprising means for determining whether it is located in a hot spot zone. 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising means for determining an initial hot spot on the display page, wherein the hot spot zone has an area defined by an angle extending from the initial hot spot serving as a vertex. User interactive display system. 4. The data processor controlled user interactive display system of claim 3 further comprising means for determining whether the cursor is located in a hot spot zone in accordance with the direction of movement of the cursor. 3. The data processor controlled user interactive display system of claim 2 further comprising means for highlighting a hot spot zone in which the cursor is located. A plurality of hotspots of varying sizes, wherein user access is made through a plurality of data processor-controlled interactive display stations, and transmitted from the display station to a station remote from the station, wherein each hotspot is a user interactive image A computer-managed communication network having a system for displaying a hypertext document, the system comprising a sequence of at least one display screen page comprising a display of the linked document in response to the position indicating means. Means for determining the size and position of the hot spot on the display page; Means for dynamically generating a plurality of extended hotspot zones, wherein the hotspot zones each include the one hotspot in response to the size and positioning means; And Means for displaying a document linked to the hot spot of the zone in response to the user interactive image position indicating means in a selected hot spot zone; Computer managed network comprising a. 7. The computer-managed network of claim 6, wherein the image position indicating means comprises a user control cursor, and further comprising means for determining whether the cursor is located in a hot spot zone. 8. The computer-managed system of claim 7, further comprising means for determining an initial hot spot on the display page, wherein the hot spot zone has an area defined by an angle extending from the initial hot spot serving as a vertex. network. 10. The computer-managed network of claim 8, wherein the means for determining the initial hot spot determines an initial hot spot based on the activity of selecting the hot spot of a document transmitted within the network. A hypertext document comprising a sequence of at least one display screen page including a plurality of hotspots of various sizes, each of the hotspots displaying a linked document in response to a user interactive picture position indicating means. In a computer implemented method for displaying, Determining the size and location of the hot spot on the display page; Dynamically generating a plurality of extended hotspot zones, wherein the hotspot zones each include the one hotspot in response to the size and position determination; And Displaying a document linked to the hot spot in the selected zone in response to the user interactive image position indicating means in the selected hot spot zone. Hypertext document display method comprising a. 12. The method of claim 10, wherein said image position indicating step includes controlling a cursor interactively and determining whether said cursor is located in a hot spot zone. 12. The hypertext document of claim 11, further comprising determining an initial hot spot on the display page, wherein the hot spot zone has an area defined by an angle extending from the initial hot spot serving as a vertex. Display method. 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether the cursor is located in a hot spot zone according to the direction of movement of the cursor. 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising highlighting a hot spot zone in which the cursor is located. A plurality of hotspots of varying sizes, wherein user access is made through a plurality of data processor-controlled interactive display stations, and transmitted from the display station to a station remote from the station, wherein each hotspot is a user interactive image A display within a computer-managed communications network having a system for displaying a hypertext document, the system comprising a sequence of at least one display screen page comprising a display of the linked document in response to the position indicating means. A method of accessing a hot spot of a document page received at a station, Determining the size and position of the hot spot on the received display page; Dynamically generating a plurality of extended hotspot zones, wherein the hotspot zones each include the one hotspot in response to the size and position determination; And Displaying a document linked to a hot spot of the selected zone in response to the user interactive picture position indication within the selected hot spot zone. Hotspot access method comprising a. A plurality of hotspots of various sizes, on a computer readable media for display, wherein the hotspots each have a linked document in response to user interactive picture position indicating means. A computer program having a data structure for displaying a hypertext document, comprising a sequence of at least one display screen page that includes a display; Means for determining the size and position of the hot spot on the display page; Means for dynamically generating a plurality of extended hotspot zones, wherein the hotspot zones each include the one hotspot in response to the size and positioning means; And Means for displaying a document linked to the hot spot of the zone in response to the user interactive image position indicating means in a selected hot spot zone; Computer program comprising a. 17. The computer program according to claim 16, wherein the image position indicating means includes a user control cursor, and further comprising means for determining whether the cursor is located in a hot spot zone. 17. The computer program of claim 16, further comprising means for determining an initial hot spot on the display page, wherein the hot spot zone has an area defined by an angle extending from the initial hot spot serving as a vertex. 18. The computer program of claim 17, further comprising means for determining whether the cursor is located in a hot spot zone according to the direction of movement of the cursor. 17. The computer program of claim 16, further comprising means for highlighting a hot spot zone in which the cursor is located.